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MINITESTS
THE WRITE STUFF
Don’t you just hate it when the sticky labels on your video cassettes are
full up? And when you try to peel the old ones off you’re left with those
annoying sticky bits... Once again technology has come up with an answer,
though this is no late twentieth-century miracle solution, it’s a good
old-fashioned piece of lateral thinking. The Remarkable video tape marking
system will be immediately familiar, it’s a clever re-incarnation of those
‘magic’ writing pads we all had as children. Basically it’s a sandwich of
plastic films that turn black (actually dark grey), when you apply pressure to
the topmost layer. When the layers are separated the marks disappear; in this
case there’s a tiny wiper bar that slides from one end to the other. Each pack
contains a writing stylus, which has a little key to move the slider. The panel
has an adhesive backing film and attaches in place of the normal label, it’s
quite a bit thicker than a normal paper label but this didn’t seem to concern
the half dozen or so VCRs we tried it with.
Legibility is reasonable, at least as readable as dark grey on light grey
can be, and provided it’s not disturbed any writing seems to be quite stable --
a month and counting on our test sample. We suspect that the marks might fade
over time, though this wouldn’t necessarily be a problem on frequently-used
time-shifter tapes, we’ll keep you posted.
SPECIFICATION
Make/model REMARKABLE 5-PACK
Guide Price £5 (10-pack £9)
Features Cassette
label with re-writable surface
Package 5-labels and pen/slider key
To fit standard VHS cassette
Distributor HAMA Unit 4
Cherrywood, Chineham Business Park, Basingstoke, Hants RG24 OWF. Telephone
(0256) 708110
VIDEO CAMERA RATING 9
Temporary tape tabulation for time-shifters
CHARACTER BUILDING
Time was, almost every camcorder had some sort of on-board title
generator, these days it’s left up to the accessory companies to fill in the
gaps, and a pretty good job they’ve been doing, but now they’re under threat
from increasingly sophisticated and affordable computer-based titling systems.
The Camlink Vision 300 colour video titler appears to be a partial response to
this challenge, in fact inside the box there’s a fair amount of computer
hardware, including one mysterious custom chips; Camlink have gone to
extraordinary lengths to hide its identity, by grinding away its identification
number.
Whether or no anyone would want to emulate the operation of this device
is debatable, but we’ll come to that in a moment. Back on the outside the
titler is built into the by now familiar sloping console used by the rest of
Camlink’s Vision range. The keyboard follows the standard QWERTY layour but the
keys are small, rubbery and lack feel, moreover there’s no pound or dollar
signs, or any special characters. The titler has a full set of AV inputs,
including S-Video sockets, though resolution doesn’t get much above 350 lines.
Creating a title is simple enough, and adding attributes, to change the
colour or style of the title is easy enough. Up to 8 pages can be created and
this is where the Vision 300 gets a bit too complicated for its own good. Pages
can be shown in sequence, and assigned a display mode (scroll, crawl etc), but
to do this you need to press a sequence of buttons and enter a string of
commands. The problem is there’s no verification or comfirmation display, so
there’s no way of knowing if you get it wrong, and no opportunity to try or
preview the various options. The instruction book actually suggests the user
tries the display modes for themselves, but doesn’t go on to explain how. In
short if you stray from a simple one page title it’s far too easy to get into a
tangle, and without the instruction book you’re lost!
The titles themseleves are reasonably sharp, though there’s only two
charcter sizes, and only one font, though there’s just enough flexibility and
options for character colour and background to make it interesting.
SPECIFICATION
Make/model CAMLINK VISION
300
Guide Price £170
What is it? Colour video
title generator
No pages 8
Page layout 12 lines x 26
characters
Character sizes 2
Character styles 8 colours/3
modes
Background 8
colours/superimpose
Effects sequence,
line by line, crawl, scroll (2-speeds)
Accessories mains
adaptor, 2 x sets AV leads, phono to SCART adaptor
Dimensions 170 x 305 x
55mm
Distributor APEX RETAIL DISTRIBUTION 4 Apex Point,Travellers Lane, Welham
Green, Hatfield, Herts AL9 7HB. Telephone (0707) 266222
VIDEO CAMERA RATING 7
Good results but cumbersome to use
WORLD CLASS
You don’t see too many TVs on these pages, that’s because very few are
designed for the convenience of video movie-makers, and lack even basic
facilities like front-mounted AV terminals. That’s clearly not a problem with
the Grundig P27-649/12, which is so camcorder friendly it would give your
machine a big wet sloppy kiss, if it could. Portability is the key feature;
it’s small, with a nine-inch (23cm) screen, and all-up weight is just 7kg, just
the right size in fact for caravanning or camping. It will run off almost any power
source, from a car battery (a battery cord is supplied) to any mains supply,
anywhere in the world, and it has a tuner to match. It’s a true multi-standard
TV, operating on PAL I/B or G, NTSC and SECAM transmissions, selectable from
the on-screen display.
The all-important frontal AV socketry includes a pair of phonos, for
composite video and audio in, and there’s also an S-Video socket -- unusual on
a set of this size. In addition there’s a headphone socket, for private
listening. On the back panel there’s a fully configured SCART socket, with RGB
connections, AC and DC power sockets, and an aerial connector. The S-Video and
RGB connections mean the P27 would make a useful monitor, for both editing and
movie-making purposes, and for computers and video games, is there nothing this
telly cannot do? Well, there is one thing, it doesn’t have a fastext decoder,
though there's a set of text buttons on the remote handset, but even that is
possible as it can be retrofitted with a text decoder.
As you would expect picture quality is good, mainly because TV pictures
on small screens always look bright and
sharp. Surprisingly picture quality from an S-Video source isn’t that wonderful
and the display can only resolve 330-lines or so, but colours are crisp and
vibrant, and there’s plenty of contrast. The tuner is a top rate design,
sensitive and selective, and the two metre-long telescopic antenna can pull in
a picture in all but the most arduous reception conditions. Grundig have wisely
avoided using a sweep tuner, (the type that automatically searches out
transmission), as this would inevitably skip over marginal signals; instead the
tuner set-up is controlled manually, from the on-screen display, which also
generates a station ident, every time the channel is changed.
A real gem of a TV, and don’t be put off by the price. You’re paying for
versatility and flexibility, it’ll work just about anywhere, but it’s just as
happy staying at home, as a second set in the bedroom, or earning its keep as a
monitor or computer game display.
SPECIFICATION
Make/model GRUNDIG
P27-649/12
Guide Price £330
Screen size 9-inches/23
cm
Power supply 12-12
VDC/110-240V 50/60Hz AC
Features
multi-lingual on-screen display, 99-minute sleep timer, 49 channel
tuner, child lock, fastext upgradeable
Sockets front:
composite video and audio (phono), S-Video in, headphone (minijack); rear: AV
in/out (SCART), AC in (Telefunken), DC in, RF in (coaxial)
Dimensions 270 x 250 x 340
Weight 7kg
Distributor GRUNDIG
INTERNATIONAL Mill Road, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 1PR. Telephone (0788) 577155
VIDEO CAMERA RATING 9
Portability par-excellence
SPECIFICATION
Make/model
Guide Price £
Features
Sockets
Dimensions
Weight
Distributor
VIDEO CAMERA RATING X
SPECIFICATION
Make/model
Guide Price £
Features
Sockets
Dimensions
Weight
Distributor
VIDEO CAMERA RATING X
SPECIFICATION
Make/model
Guide Price £
Features
Sockets
Dimensions
Weight
Distributor
VIDEO CAMERA RATING X
SPECIFICATION
Make/model
Guide Price £
Features
Sockets
Dimensions
Weight
Distributor
VIDEO CAMERA RATING X
SPECIFICATION
Make/model
Guide Price £
Features
Sockets
Dimensions
Weight
Distributor
VIDEO CAMERA RATING X
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(c) R.Maybury 1993 1203
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